Introducing: Mursal Hedayat from Chatterbox

NAME: Mursal Hedayat

COMPANY: Chatterbox

Chatterbox is an online and in-person language tutoring service for business and university students, powered by the talents of the refugee community.

We train refugees to teach their native language and support them with paid employment. Chatterbox provides stimulating work for refugee teachers and professionals whilst acting as a springboard for better employment opportunities.

UNDERLYING MOTIVATION:

Refugees in the UK experience disproportionate levels of unemployment and poverty, despite possessing higher than average levels of education and training. The underutilisation of their talents is a labour market failure as well as a societal failure.

Further, the current dialogue surrounding refugees is both toxic and inaccurate. Far from being a drain on society, refugees’ can make a significant positive contribution to the British economy if given the chance. For example by plugging the language skills gap which costs us around £48bn a year in lost business opportunities...

BIGGEST LEARNING: People are overwhelmingly supportive and keen to help if you want to create positive change.

NEXT STEPS: We want to continue developing an excellent language learning service for university students and business clients and take this to market.

HOW PEOPLE CAN HELP: Learn or practice a language with us! Introduce us to university contacts or organisations that purchase language learning services.

JOINING EDSPACE: We’re incredibly lucky to be sponsored by Edspace. Everyday, we’re surrounded by an inspirational community of educational startups and businesses that we can learn from.

WHAT I CAN TEACH: I’m passionate about democracy and politics, and have a talent for engaging even the most apathetic voter on the big issues.